LOWER POTTSGROVE — Just weeks before that tragic night, Damon Carter was clearing the high jump bar with ease.

Carter, one of the best jumpers ever on the always-strong Pottsgrove High track team, graduated that spring, in 2012, wrapping up a terrific four-year high school career.

He was the last of five Carter siblings to graduate, including Brent Carter, a former Falcons football standout.

But in the blink of an eye, Damon Carter was gone.

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The sweet-natured, lanky Carter, liked by everybody, passed away quietly in the middle of the night, June 29, 2012.

Epilepsy had taken Carter’s life. He was only 18.

To help keep Carter’s memory alive, his family will lead the first race in his honor to help find a cure for Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.

The Damon’s Cause 5K Walk/Run will take place this Saturday, Oct. 19, at 10 a.m. at Pottsgrove High School. The course will begin at the stadium and wind twice through the surrounding neighborhood.

The entry fee for those who pre-register (www.damonscause.com) will be $20 for adults and $10 for children 18-and-under. The cost will be slightly higher for those who register on race-day. Prizes will be awarded to the first three winners in each age group, and T-shirts and light refreshments are available if you pre-register.

The idea, which organizers plan to become an annual event, was put together by Damon’s mother, Torrance Acy Carter, and his siblings, in partnership with Pottsgrove High School and Falcons athletic director Gary DeRenzo.

“When a parent loses their child, my philosophy is that I would do anything to help them get through that terrible situation,” DeRenzo said. “As a parent myself, I don’t think there is anything more dramatic and worse that could happen to a parent. And the least that I can do is lend some assistance to help them honor Damon and keep his name and memory alive.”

The 5K run/walk is perfect for raising awareness and for trying to find a cure for epilepsy in Damon’s memory, his mother said.

“Because he loved track,” Acy Carter said. “It was an instrumental part of his life. And after he graduated from high school, he kept going to summer track practice with (Pottsgrove track coach) Larry Rechtin.

“We didn’t know where (he would go to college) yet where because we were still trying to get his seizures under control,” his mom said. “That was the main thing, But he enjoyed track and practices so much, and when he asked if he could go, I would tell him, ‘Sure.’ If they let you come, you can go.’”

Sadly, moving on to college wasn’t to be.

“The donations people gave at Damon’s Celebration of Life at the high school (in July, 2012), I gave to the high school for scholarships and for the Pottsgrove track team,” Acy Carter said. “And because SUDEP is not much known. Few ever hurt of it. But there are plenty of people who walk around who had one seizure, who don’t even know they are epileptic. And I think everybody should know that anybody who ever had a seizure can become a victim of SUDEP. It’s not just people who have seizures all the time. People can have had one seizure 20 years ago, and all of a sudden they drop.”

Driven by her sadness, and wondering what more the family could have done, Acy Carter became consumed with research on SUDEP, and posted this on the Damon’s Cause website:

“SUDEP refers to an unexpected death of a person suffering from the disease epilepsy,” the website explains. “No mechanism or cause of death has been understood in fatalities attributed to this devastating result of epilepsy. The postmortem reports of such patients do not reveal the exact cause of death. However, strong evidence suggests that SUDEP is closely related to generalized epileptic convulsions.

“Much more research into SUDEP is required to try to identify its cause and how to prevent it from occurring in epileptic patients. Damon’s Cause is a small step in creating awareness about this deadly offshoot of epilepsy. We are a non-profit organization trying to help find a cure for this cause of a significant number of deaths to epileptics every year. Help Us Find a Cure.”

To look at Damon Carter in that spring of 2012, one would have never guessed SUDEP was on the brink of ending his life.

Sometimes he would suddenly vanish from the area of the high jump pit. Someone would ask, “Where did Damon go?” The quiet answer would be, “He had a seizure, he is lying down.”

More often the seizures would be gone as suddenly as they had come. They had just as suddenly started in April, 2010. Doctors tried a number of different medications, hoping they would cure him. None did.

At home, his mother and siblings were forever keeping a close eye on Damon. Sometimes he would pretend something was wrong with him, making frightening loud gulping sounds. They would rush to his side and Damon would jump up and laugh that he had fooled them.

But there was no laughter when older brother Darin checked on Damon in the middle of the night on June 29 of last year. Or ever again. Damon had quietly slipped away.

“God saw you were getting tired and a cure was not to be. So he put his arms around you, and whispered — Come with Me,” his mother read from a poem when hundreds came to Pottsgrove High School last July to remember Damon.

The pain will never go away for his family and all those who loved him.

“We have people on our Facebook site that have fallen victims to SUDEP, who had a seizure 10 days ago, and they were 27 years old and were said to have died of natural causes,” Acy Carter said. “At 27, you do not die of natural causes. There was nothing so wrong that Damon shouldn’t be here today. But he is not. Why?”

Pursuing a cure for SUDEP also helps Carter’s mother get through the grief that continues to persist.

“All the comments, the posts people put on Facebook in reference to him, ‘Oh, remember this and that about him.’ That helps bring back memories, like ‘Yes, that was him.’”

Pottsgrove High School, and especially DeRenzo, has been incredibly helpful in getting this started, Acy Carter stressed.

“Gary has been great,” she said. “He has taken my hand and said, ‘OK, this is what you need to do. I’ll do this, I’ll do that for you, and next year when you do it, you have a little more knowledge about it. It was through his guidance that we put this together.”

“And not only because I am a father and I understand the grief, the Carter family is really synonymous with Pottsgrove athletics, all the way back to 1978,” DeRenzo said. “They’ve contributed in so many ways for a long period of time in a variety of sports. They’ve helped put Pottsgrove athletics and the school district on the map.”

Damon’s oldest brother Brent was a superb running back/defensive back in early to mid-2000s, and went on to Penn State on a scholarship. Older brother Darin and older sister Allie excelled in track and field, while brother Bryce, a few years older than Damon, was a member of the Falcons’ 2009-10 basketball team that won the PAC-10.

“From a personal standpoint, the least I can do is answer their call if they need some help,” DeRenzo said.

NOTES

For more information go to www.damonscause.com. You can also still make donations there. Donationals can also be sent to: Damon’s Cause, PO Box 1334, Pottstown, PA 19464.

Follow Rosemarie Ross on Twitter at @RoseRoss31

About the Author

Rosemarie Ross is a veteran sports reporter for The Mercury. A native of Germany, she began her career with the former United Press International pioneering the role of women in sports reporting. She was worked in Trenton, Phladelphia and Patterson, N.J. and has covered pro sports and boxing. She is a member of the National Hall of Fame for her boxing coverage. She covers high school sports -- and loves it. Reach the author at rross@pottsmerc.com
or follow Rosemarie on Twitter: @RoseRoss31.